Dark Crystal

After four days of march through rough terrain, Heart Guard reached the town of Aquavitae. It was a small town with wooden buildings. Its inhabitants were mostly shepherds or farmers growing the hardy mountain blackberries. The town was built along the Aquavitae Creek, a river flowing from Crystal Mountains, that gave its name to the entire province.

Shining Armor talked with the mayor. The mayor was an old Earth Pony with a dull green coat, orange mane and a cutie mark of a tree.

“Have you seen the enemy?”

“I haven’t, but my sister-in-law said she saw a huge construct in the sky.”

The mayor talked with a very strange dialect, with some Yaki loanwords, but Shining managed to understand it.

“This contraption, how did it look?”

“Like a boat, but metal and in the sky. It flew quickly.”

“Airship?”

“Possibly.”

“Do not worry, mayor. The Heart Guard is going to defend this town and find the creatures who attacked the villages.”

“Thank you, you highness. Ponies are afraid that Aquavitae might be next, but with your soldiers here, we will be safer.”

Shining Armor hoped that he would be able to catch the enemy.

—

Flurry Heart flew over the village. She volunteered to do the patrolling. There was no sight of the enemy yet. She hoped that the enemy would come here, so she could stop them and became a hero just like everypony else in her family.

Flurry looked around. There were no pegasi other than Grumpy here. She decided to quickly drop the disguise for her horn and cast a spell. Leaping’s eyes turned into Flurry’s as she casted a far-sighting spell and a detect creature spell.

She carefully looked around. She could see faint magical auras of the forest critters. She also saw the ground patrols, their auras strong and bright.

She looked at the sky, and saw something. Very bright sphere was moving in the distance, fast.

“Grumpy, you see this?”

“There’s nothing there.”

Flurry blinked, removing her spells. She couldn’t see the sphere in the sky. She thought for a second, and casted another spell, to remove invisibility.

Then, she saw what she detected. In the distance, there were airships. Few large ones, multiple small ones.

Flurry casted the spell on Grumpy. “Now, do you see them?”

“Airships!”

“We need to warn others, now!”

Flurry removed the spells and restored the disguise. Then she and Grumpy flew towards the command center.

They landed by the tent. “I need to see Prince Shining Armor. I found something!” shouted Flurry. The guard let them enter the tent.

Shining Armor was sitting by the table, looking at maps. He looked towards Flurry. “Yes, Private Leaping?”

Flurry saluted. “You Highness, I saw something moving in the air to the north of the town. I think it might be an airship with a poorly applied invisibility spell.”

“Invisible airship? How could you see it, then?”

“Clouds were deformed as it was passing in front of them.”

“Indeed, an amateur mistake. Thank you, private. I’m going to deal with it,” Shining said, and walked out of the tent.

He quickly ran over to the watchtower. He looked north. There was nothing here. He casted a remove invisibility spell.

“Airships approaching, alarm!”

The alarm rang in the base. Guards quickly readied themselves to fight.

Shining saw one of the airships flying over towards the town. He managed to get a better look at it. The airship was small, made out of metal, and looked nothing like the airships or planes used in Equestria.

“Unidentified airship, identify yourself,” he shouted, using a spell that made sure the pilot heard it.

The small airship stopped, its pilot surely surprised at being detected. There was no answer.

“This is Heart Guard. You are over a Crystal Empire’s town. Identify yourself or you will be shot down.”

The airship still stood in place. Then, it opened fire.

—

Flurry and Grumpy rejoined their unit. Flurry checked her pegasi battlesaddle. Finally, she will get into a fight.

Bright flash of magic stranded her. She looked at the watchtower, and saw her father casting a shield spell. The spell protected him from a volley of bullets from an invisible source. Shining briefly dropped the shield, and shot two powerful beams of magic. They hit the airship. It lost its invisibility and started falling to the ground.

Flurry and other pegasi took flight. Unicorns started preparing their own spells. Earth Ponies had their guns ready.

Suddenly, there was a bright golden flash that covered the sky. Some kind of area effect. It surely wasn’t cast by her father, and he was the only unicorn here powerful enough for such a spell. Flurry saw that the airships dropped their invisibility. The larger ones landed at some distance, while the smaller ones flew towards the town.

Anti-aircraft artillery set up on the town’s outskirts has fired upon the small airships. They managed to evade. Some of them started shooting from machine guns.

Flurry started to feel afraid, but she pushed it away. She looked at Grumpy and others. They could face this, so she could as well.

“Enemy approaching from the north!” their battalion commander shouted. Flurry and others flew north.

Then, Flurry saw the enemies. They were ponies. They had dark uniforms with strange red symbols and were wearing strange masks. Some of the unicorns casted spells, and Flurry felt the dark magic emitting from them.

Flurry pointed her gun at one of the enemy unicorns. She hesitated. They were ponies…

Only a push from Grumpy prevented her from getting shot. Crystal pegasi started scattering as the enemy pegasi started flying towards them.

Flurry was about to pick her target, but suddenly a huge explosion threw her off-balance. She saw one of the anti-aircraft guns being blown up by a powerful flash of golden magic.

She looked around, and saw something she couldn’t have imagined.

—

Shining Armor had casted another masterwork shield spell in order to cover the town from attacking airships.

Both the technology and the magic used by those ponies were strange and vastly different from those used in the Crystal Empire. Shining had no idea where they came from, but he had no time for thinking about it. Saving this town was his priority.

The attackers were powerful, yet the Heart Guard was strong and disciplined as well. They managed to stop the enemy on the outskirts of the town.

Shining casted another death beam and hit one of the airships. It fell down in flames.

Then, a great explosion shook the ground. Shining saw one of anti-aircraft guns being blown up by golden magic.

Something flew from the smoke. Shining couldn’t believe his eyes. He thought he must be mistaken, but then a flash of golden magic from this creature had blown up another AA gun.

Alicorn. Shining was looking at an alicorn. It was completely covered in red armor, richly decorated with magical crystals and wards. It wore a golden mask. Its eyes were dark, shadowed.

“What in Heart’s name is that?” Shining said aloud.

The alicorn was reading another spell. Shining couldn’t let it do so. He shot a beam towards it. The alicorn casted a shield spell and defended itself.

“Shining Armor. How nice to meet you!” the alicorn shouted. The voice was enchanted by magic and modified by the mask.

“Who are you?!” Shining shouted.

“I am the rightful Princess of Ponies!” the alicorn replied. “Surrender, and you will be spared!”

“Never!” Shining said, and prepared a barrage of magic. Beams shot from his horn. The alicorn defended herself with the shield spell. Then, she shot a beam herself.

Shining Armor was a world-renowned master of shield spells, but the sheer strength of the alicorn’s attack almost made him drop his spell. His horn hurt, he felt the magic running out. He pressed on. He wouldn’t let this alicorn hurt other ponies.

Suddenly, a golden beam hit the alicorn. The attack stopped. The alicorn barely keept herself in the air. Another beam made a dent in the magical armor. Shining looked at who was shooting the spell.

It was… Private Leaping. She had a horn now, a pink one… then, the disguise fell down.

“FLURRY!” Shining shouted. His teenage daughter was here, in the middle of the battle, attacking an alicorn. He felt panic. How did she get here? What was she thinking?

“Princess Flurry Heart? You’re here? It’s better than I expected!” the alicorn shouted.

Flurry shoots another spell. This time the alicorn managed to defend herself. She shot a beam at Flurry. Flurry managed to defend herself. Shining casted another barrage of spells. He had to protect his daughter.

The alicorn surrounded herself with a golden shield sphere. The attacks were weakening her.

“Not bad. Not bad at all. Time to stop this game,” said the alicorn. She dropped the shield, and cast a very bright beam at Flurry.

Flurry attempted to raise a shield, but the strength of the attack broke it. Shining saw his daughter getting hit, and falling from the sky. Before he could react, the alicorn caught Flurry in her magic.

“I’ve got the young princess. Retreat!” shouted the alicorn, and teleported away, together with unconscious Flurry. The enemy soldiers had retreated to the airships. The Heart Guard attempted to stop them, but the enemy managed to retreat. The airships went invisible again.

Shining Armor looked into the sky. His daughter, injured and captured. How did she even get here?

The shock was replaced with anger. Shining shot a flaming beam at the remains of the watchtower. He’s going to find this alicorn, and she will pay.